New Year Bliss!

Here I am for my post-holidaze catch up session! Let's suffice it to say that some stuff got knitted, people were happy, and I got some KILLER presents! Namely, my friend Melinda sent me a Knitting calendar, with patterns for every day and some bonus projects thrown in--it is so much fun!!! I got some row counters, stitch markers, needle wraps to keep stitches where they belong during knitting naps (when a project gets put aside) and a whole set of KnitPicks' Zephyr circs!!! Cary gave me a wonderful new set of snips, too. This is one very satisfied recipient!

Now, on to the fun stuff! I am not one of those people who have after holiday blahs. (I am one of those bah-humbuggers who have mid-holiday meltdowns.) So I am in my happy zone right now! I love the days before me, blank and brimming with promise. Being a planner, I was thinking how I would love to have a place I could jot down the ideas I have for projects without thoroughly committing to them. Yeah, this blog didn't even occur to me for several moments. I'm dense that way.

First, I am very near finishing the birthday sweater I started LAST YEAR on my birthday! It's a Drops Design pattern, and while it's not all that hard technique-wise, I have had a bugger of a time figuring out everything just because it is foreign. It's in English, but it was translated from Norwegian and the charts and notes on charts are still in Norwegian, the markings are unfamiliar, and they measure status in centimeters, not rows. So it's like "when you reach 43cm, decrease..." thus and so. Kath no likey. I am completely flummoxed enough just by putting down my work to get a cup of coffee. When I return, I feel that I am returning to a distant planet I visited long ago. All this said, I have learned so many things on this garment! Like I *MUST* use a counter, and click it every single *@#$% row, no matter what! Because I do NOT have the memory capacity to remember what I just did. Unfortunately, I forget that I don't have the memory capacity to remember what I just did. So I'm writing it down here! MUST USE COUNTER!!! Another lesson...count stitches, even when the pattern makes sense. Also, make a dinky little chart, even for simple things, because when you come back after months away, you will have a much easier time of picking the thing back up.

As soon as I finish this sweater, I have another one lined up and ready to go! It's going to be a top down raglan cardigan done in Cascade Eco Wool. I love the fit of a raglan, as I have broad shoulders, and I love being able to fit it to my Amazonian frame as I go. It's almost entirely stockinette, which I am not loving in hand work, but I am planning to use this for my travel and knit group project so I don't have to pay attention to the pattern and I can just buzz along. I do pretty well hand knitting by myself, but you throw in barking dogs, chatty children, questioning spouses, juicy tidbits of gossip and witty repartee and I turn into the frog queen.

I am jonesing for some challenge, and I have three in the mental works: Entrelac; stranded knitting; and lace work. These are quiet morning items, because I will need all my faculties and enormous amounts of caffeine for them. I have the lace yarn, and I picked out a pattern this morning, so that one is just waiting for the impetus to arrive. I bought some wonderful Digit yarn at my new favorite yarn store, The Hook and Needle, which ironically is in Bryan! I discovered it when I met my parents there for lunch one day. I got heathers and solids and it begs to be lined up in flowers, hearts and crisscrosses, so there is my stranded experiment ready and waiting. I am still searching for the perfect entrelac candidate. You know this thrills me, because I can start that researching, digging, hunting, pricing process I so love.

My cold tootsies are begging for some new wool socks, and I have more sock yarn than a knitting centipede! So that's probably my next machine knitting project.

I am also toying with the idea of actually putting some things on my Etsy store site, which I have had for a couple of years but have never used. This is all I'm going to say about this matter, because it still is very scary and intimidating to me. I have more don'ts about it than dos at this point.

Oh, and I have a huge mountain of mending staring at me. I really need to move that [again] so I don't have to look at it.